This was recently forwarded to me. It’s good news that CMW will be continuing under new leadership - and interesting insights into the Chinese manufacturing situation for our hobby.
Dave Nelson
Letter From CMW Holdings, LTD to Our Customers
To our valued customers -
As you all know the hobby industry has gone through a tremendous amount of change over the last two decades. One of the most impactful changes has been sourcing our products from China.
The growth of China from a third world country to the second most powerful nation in the world in less than 30 years has caused a cataclysmic shift in far reaching ways. The most impactful for the hobby business, especially small companies like CMW, is being important enough to a Chinese factory’s manufacturing capacity. China’s “maker to the world” economy has made working with or finding boutique contract manufacturers nearly impossible. And when we do find makers the results are very high pricing coupled with late shipments. These two factors conspired to make business very difficult.
The good news is CMW continues to be the number one seller and innovator of model railroad inspired HO and N scale vehicles. Our products continue to be highly sought after and are featured on numerous model railroads and collections around the world. So how do we continue to provide great products to our consumers while trying to keep pricing in-check and increase speed-to-market?
The solution was to join forces with a qualified US company with the resources to make what we started in 1997 even better. That company had to understand the hobby distributor and retailer, the consumer and have a dedication to producing high quality innovative product. An
The shift away from manufacturing in China is happening in Wargaming as well as Model Railroading. There is not another Asian country with low labor wages and high work skills available. For example, Games Workshop has moved some manufacturing back to the UK. Their new prices reflect this.
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Since World War 2 we have always had access to cheap labor overseas, Japan, then Taiwan, then Korea, now China. The labor market is changing, and prices are only going to rise.
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Many manufacturers thought that Africa would emerge as the next location for inexpensive labor, but this has not become reality.
I too am glad that a smooth transition has been arranged. I have a lot of CMW vehicles on my layout, and I’d like to thank the company for their products and the contributions they’ve made to the hobby.
That is great news. Also Oxford continues to come out with some outstanding model vehicles. The more variety we have, especially in transition era vehicles, the better. There are just so many 1950 Dodge Meadowbrooks one can put on a layout without bending credibility.
Asia has a different philosophy about work, and education, for that matter.
I have a friend who worked at a larger military-industrial complex in the Bahamas. They tried to get the locals to farm fresh vegetables, they had no takers.
The standing joke was “What do you get if you cross a Bahamian with a goat?”
Hopefully this is not the same situation as when Horizon bought Athearn…no brand new product in the past few years, just reissues, repaints, repackaging, and higher prices.
When I first got the Oxfords, I thought they were OO because they seemed significantly larger than most of the other cars on my layout which were mainly CMW and WS. Then somebody got out the scale ruler and it turns out they are correct HO scale. If anything the other brands are too small. I just learned recently that the WS vehicles are just generic cars, not models of specific cars. Apparently that saved them from paying licensing fees. They just present them as coupes, or convertibles, or station wagons. They look similar to actual makes but they don’t call them by the name of the automaker. I do hope Oxford continues to come out with more HO scale 1950s era cars because they are outstanding.
From this Yahoo Group post (link) from a while back, where the author made his best guess attempts to match up the Woodland Scenics to their likely prototypes
Those 4 digit IDs refer to the set #s, the linked Yahoo post provides a cross-ref table.
The author of the post got the ID’s right I think - I have the “1948 Ford Convertible” (from the “Hitchin’ a ride” set) and except for some minor “chrome” trim differences, it looks a close match to images you see on car collector sites. Since it’s kinda hobbtac’ed down in a diorama, I can’t really measure it to confirm length/width dimensions without messing other items in the diorama up.
BTW, Oxford has a bunch of new HO models teed up for future production, of which I think the 1965 Chevy P/U was
I have many CMW vehicles and have recently bought some of the Oxford offerings. I feel the paint on most of them sems a bit heavy. The 65 Chevy pickup is their best one. I wish them would make some different colors though.
Perhaps their most interesting offering is the 1961 Lincoln Continental presidential limousine which is the vehicle JFK was riding in when assassinated. I recognized it instantly when I saw one at my LHS. I have a large scale model of that same car. After the assassination it was competely rebuilt as a hardtop with a bullet proof half bubble and used by both LBJ and Nixon. Nixon rode it during his first innauguration. Later it underwent another rebuild as a full hardtop and is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.